The Crypto Assets market is in a downturn, and alts are facing severe challenges.

Since the beginning of 2025, the overall performance of the crypto assets market has been sluggish. Not only have the altcoins on exchanges performed poorly, but even the on-chain coins that performed exceptionally well in the fourth quarter of last year have seen significant declines.

Tokens related to AI Agents have seen a significant decline in just three months:

• Virtual down 79.2%
• Ai16z dropped 85.5%
• AIXBT fell by 68%
• Griffain dropped 80.3%
• Buzz dropped 72.4%
• Fartcoin dropped 67.5%
• ARC dropped 62%
• Swarms fell by 45%

The significant decline of these once popular projects cannot be directly judged as a bubble, but the market's attention to this field has indeed decreased significantly, making it difficult to recover in the short term.

Another highly watched "celebrity coin" sector has also been hit hard. Since the surge of Trump-related tokens, other celebrities and even some countries have followed suit. However, the decline of these tokens since their peak has been even more severe:

• Trump dropped 77.1%
• Melania dropped 91%
• Vine dropped 92.7%
• jailstool down 93.5%
• Jellyjelly dropped by 98%
• CAR dropped 98.5%
• Libra dropped 94.3%

The cryptocurrency market is often said to be "investing in the new rather than the old," which means that investors are more inclined to chase emerging narratives. However, compared to AI Agents, the decline in celebrity coin tracks has been more severe. In the current market, where new narratives are scarce, what issues do these two fields face? Is there still a possibility for breakthroughs in the future?

Current Narrative Dilemma: Concept Hype Prevails, Lack of Substantial Applications

Most projects in the AI Agent field are still at the stage of concept demonstration and blueprint drawing, lacking practical and scalable products. Even when some projects launch operational services, they generally suffer from complex interfaces and poor user experiences, making it difficult to attract ordinary users for long-term use. Worse still, some project teams exaggerate their promotions to meet investor expectations and push up coin prices, while actual applications are repeatedly delayed. As time goes by, investors lose patience and shift their attention, leading to a significant drop in the prices of related tokens.

Regarding celebrity coins, although Trump sparked a wave of enthusiasm, he subsequently encountered the issue of "celebrity effect decay." Following that, other politicians, internet celebrities, and stars attempted to imitate but were unable to replicate the initial funding heat and market sentiment. The market's enthusiasm gradually weakened, leading to a fleeting characteristic of the celebrity coin track, investor confidence quickly diminished, and the coin prices subsequently plummeted.

The deep reasons for the significant fluctuations in these tracks lie in the fact that most projects remain at the level of conceptual hype, lacking real and sustainable profit models. Whether it's AI Agent or celebrity coins, their core narrative relies on the rapid influx of funds and popularity, but lacks the motivation for users to participate in the long term. Once the hype fades, it becomes difficult to maintain prices, let alone attract new funds to enter.

Finding real yield projects becomes key

In the current market environment with a weak narrative, the key to standing out lies in finding projects that have "real returns" and are "willing to share with users." The so-called "real returns" refer not only to the price increase at the time of listing but also to the ability to continuously generate returns through actual business models and trading behaviors, and to feedback these returns to token holders or ecosystem participants.

For example, a certain decentralized perpetual contract trading platform adopts this model. The business model of this platform is similar to that of centralized exchanges, with primary revenue coming from contract trading fees. The difference is that the platform uses all the fees for repurchasing its platform tokens. Since trading fees are directly related to trading volume, this model closely ties the coin price to the platform's actual business performance.

According to data statistics, the platform accounts for about 45% of the 24-hour trading volume share among all decentralized perpetual contract exchanges, with an average daily trading volume of 3.78 billion dollars and daily revenue of approximately 1 million dollars. Even in the current market downturn, the platform still maintains a high level of activity, and its token price has consequently performed relatively strongly in the recent environment where alts have generally declined.

No matter how hot the narrative is, it will eventually lose its luster. Projects that can exist long-term in the Crypto Assets market must have a product-market fit ( PMF ), high user stickiness, and a real revenue model. These factors will be the key to the success of future projects.